Visiting the Statue of Liberty Crown🗽

On June 20th, 2026, we visited Liberty Island, and finally had the privilege of going to the crown in the Statue of Liberty. 

We had always dreamed of going to the very top of the Statue of Liberty, and we could not have been more excited to have finally gone to the top of the tower.

Before planning any trips to the crown in the Statue of Liberty, one important note is that you cannot just walk up to the top on the day of your visit. You must reserve a time and day to visit the crown of the Statue of Liberty and they sell out very fast. As stated earlier, we have been wanting to go into the Statue of Liberty for years, but it was challenging to find a time since most days it is sold out. Josephine wanted to make this my birthday present this year, so she had to reserve our time slot over three months in advance. Thus, if this is an activity that you really want to do, or if you are a tourist planning to visit Liberty Island for the first time, you must schedule this way in advance.

Since we were taking the boat from the New Jersey side, we had to pick up our tickets from Liberty State Park, and show an email confirmation that we reserved a time to visit the crown. Once we picked up our tickets, the employee at the ticket booth gave us wristbands to show that we had reserved a time to visit the crown.

After going through security, we hopped on a boat to make our way to Ellis Island, and then another boat to head to Liberty State Park.

Once we arrived at the Statue of Liberty, we got a locker to place our bags and bottles of water since they are not allowed inside. After showing the tickets to get into the Statue of Liberty, we once again had to go through metal detectors like the ones you would see at the airports. 

Inside the base for the Statue of Liberty, you will have the option to either take the elevator or walk up 192 steps to the pedestal. We chose to take the elevator to the pedestal because we knew we would have to walk up many more steps to the crown later. However, in the past, we have walked to the pedestal, and we didn’t feel too tired. By the time we made it to the pedestal, we showed our wristbands to an employee, and she recommended that we go outside to the observation deck to get some fresh air before going to the very top since it can be very humid inside of the statue.

Sidenote: it is possible to visit the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty without reserving a time to visit the crown, and this is why we needed a wristband to show that we had reserved a reservation to go to the crown.

Once we ripped off our wristbands, we started our long walk to the crown.

It’s no secret that I’m a thrill seeker, but I found it a little intimidating walking up 132 feet in the narrow steep spiral stairs. There are places to stop and take a breath between the stairs, but we had to make sure that we held onto the railing and walked up slowly when going all the way to the crown.

Visiting the Crown was a dream come true for me once I made it to the top. Standing inside, the crown made me appreciate the architecture of the Statue of Liberty even more, and it provided an incredible view of the Hudson River, New York State, and Liberty Island. We made sure to take a bunch of pictures and really take in the view since we were only allowed up there for 10 minutes.

When it was time for us to head back to the pedestal, we had to also go down a very narrow and steep spiral staircase. Something I found interesting when going back down to the pedestal was that we saw a small door that led to the arm holding the torch. The door was obviously locked and we weren’t allowed in, but it was cool seeing how people would go and access the torch.

It took us around 10 more minutes to go down the staircase and then back to the pedestal where we continued to take more pictures and admire the amazing views of Liberty State Island, the Hudson River, New York and New Jersey.

Overall, visiting the crown of the Statue of Liberty is an amazing experience and I highly recommend this experience to any tourist or anyone who loves American history. However, if you are coming from far away, make sure you book a reservation to the crown several months or maybe even years in advance since only a limited number of people can go up at a time and because of its popularity.